The Labour caucus voted to suspend Sharma yesterday afternoon and the prime minister has resolutely confirmed he is on his last warning, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell.

Unanimous vote to suspend Sharma

Yesterday afternoon the Labour caucus met and unanimously decided to suspend Hamilton West MP Gaurav Sharma, effective immediately. “A sense of trust has been broken through repeated breaches of our caucus rules over the past five days,” said prime minister Jacinda Ardern. Sharma has been suspended until December, at which point he could return to caucus if this was deemed appropriate. On the bullying and harassment allegations made by Sharma, Ardern said she had seen “nothing to substantiate the claims”. She added that “Gaurav has a very different view about what are essentially the same facts”. As Stuff’s Luke Malpass notes, the “hundreds of pages” of evidence Sharma says he has, have yet to be produced.

What suspension means

Labour last suspended an MP from its caucus in 2010. Chris Carter was suspended for releasing a letter that was publicly critical of then-leader, Phil Goff and was expelled in October that year. National suspended Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell just last week, pending an investigation. Shama will continue to be the MP for Hamilton West but will not attend caucus meetings or be involved in other party matters. Sharma has been asked to participate in a mediation process to build back the trust he has lost. Sharma indicated to the Herald he might stand as an independent MP if he was expelled by the caucus.

Revelation of meeting potentially narrowed Ardern’s options but also did her a favour

While caucus met, Sharma got in touch with media to say that the Labour caucus had met without him the night before. Ardern confirmed at the press conference that Labour MPs had met without Sharma the night before to allow MPs to discuss the matter freely and confidentiality, without fear of it being leaked, presumably by Sharma. As Audrey Young (paywalled) writes, with the details of the meeting the night before revealed, Ardern had to “take the long way round” on the potential expulsion of Sharma and appear to be fair. Newsroom’s Jo Moir writes that Sharma did Ardern a favour by alerting the media to the meeting.

Sharma’s final warning

Politik’s Richard Harman (paywalled) writes, Sharma appears to be on a track that could culminate in expulsion from the Labour Party. Expulsion is still a live option for Sharma. The bar has been set very high for Sharma to return to caucus and any further misconduct could see him expelled before the review in December. When asked if this was Sharma’s final warning, Ardern replied “Yes.” So far Sharma has not responded to any media requests for comment, nor posted any responses on Facebook.